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— by Col. A lice V. Herron
Three
FIRST-PERSON
I was 15 years old when I came to partially understand that there was something missing in my reli gion. My name had been on the church record since I was eight years old. The denomination to which the family belonged didn’t hold with the belief that we must be bom again now. Nor did it teach that we could know for a certainty that our sins are forgiven. When my father prayed in pub lic, the last phrase was always, “Eventually save us and forgive us our sins.” It didn’t seem reasonable to me. If God could and would for give our sins and save us even tually, why not now? I was trying desperately to find the answer. We were taught that we must work out our own salva tion with “fear and trembling,” so I entered into all the church activ ities, prayer meetings, young peo ple’s groups, Sunday school, socials, visiting the sick and poor —- always with the thought in mind that in some way, sometime, I would find the answer that would satisfy my yearning for something deeper and more satisfying than church activ ities. When I would ask questions about the Bible I was told, “We don’t understand many things in the Bible. That is God’s business and we mustn’t try to figure out the deep things of God.” That didn’t satisfy the longing in my heart. I reasoned that God wouldn’t want us to go through life just working for Him with no feeling of satisfac tion or joy. One night after the family had retired, I slipped downstairs and lit the oil lamp in the living room and
Accounts
of
Living
Christianity
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